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Thursday, November 17, 2016

Wakefield Museums hold in our collection ballot boxes used
in the first secret ballot in parliamentary elections.Putting a cross to a name on a ballot paper
is taken for granted today.The Pontefract
by-election in 1872 changed the democratic process and made elections safer and
fairer.

Wakefield Council Museum Service has been successful in
securing funding from The Speaker’s Art Fund to create a comic telling the
story of Pontefract’s secret ballot.

We are looking for an artist to create 12 pages of art work.The aims of the comic are:

-Create a sense of pride amongst local
communities about the role Pontefract has played in shaping modern democracy in
Britain.

-Engage young Pomfretians around the importance
of democracy and the development of universal suffrage.

-Promote the importance of Josephine Butler who,
with the formation of her Ladies National Association in 1869, became the first
publicly recognised feminist activist in Britain and came to Pontefract in 1872
to campaign to repeal the Contagious Diseases Act.

-Highlight the importance of the first secret
ballot in Parliamentary elections.

The script for the comic will be provided, as will other
source material.

Artwork

The artwork contained in the 12 pages will be used in a
variety of ways including:

-To create four other pages that will give
background information to characters and elements of the story.

-To form the basis of graphic interpretation in a
new gallery display at Pontefract Museum.

-As part of learningmaterials

-To create a printed version of the comic (which
may be sold by Wakefield Museums).

The comic explores the first parliamentary by secret ballot
in the summer of 1872 in Pontefract.

Background to the scene

The secret ballot election in Pontefract was a by-election
to decide who was the Member of Parliament for Pontefract.

The two candidates in the election were Hugh Childers of the
Liberal Party – the incumbent and Lord Pollington a Conservative challenger.

As the election was the first to use the secret ballot
system and the high profile nature of the election was exploited by a women’s
rights campaigner Josephine Butler and the Ladies National Association for the Repeal of the Contagious
Diseases Acts. This was the first women organised and led movement in modern
British history.

The two pages released follow the efforts of Josephine
Butler and her fellow campaigners to hold a meeting to raise awareness of their
campaign. The current MP Hugh Childers has tried to stop the group having their
own meeting in town by double booking rooms and then insisting that they only
have a meeting which he chairs.

They manage to secure a hayloft just outside of town but
Childers’ supporters intend to spoil it.

They have been helped by a Mr Stuart (there is no
description of him and therefore artistic licence can be afforded).

Page 6:

Panel 1:

Int: Cross section view. Crowd of mainly women queuing into
a hayloft andclimbing a ladder from a
large room containing hay bales, cross section of floor and a women alighting
ladder through a trap door into large loft room, pitched roof. It is dimly lit by
oil lamps hung on walls. Behind the trapdoor is a crowd of mainly women. JB and
her friend Mrs Wilson are at the end of the room.

Also visible outside but hidden from view of the crowd is a
group of four men with aggressive postures and angry faces.

Caption: Outside Pontefract

JB Narration: We had been obliged to go all over town before
we found anyone bold enough to grant us a place to meet.

Mr Stuart paid for a room on the outskirts of town; a
hayloft with a rather unconventional entrance. However, the place was large
enough to hold a good meeting, and it was soon filled.

JB: Welcome ladies….gentlemen…..

Panel two:

Close up of JB and Mrs Wilson. JB has tears in her eyes, Mrs
Wilson is sniffling. There are wisps of smoke visible from the floor

JB: Mr Childers is AFRAID to meet us and answer our
questions. This election is our chance raise this issue and turn his supporters
against him

JB Narration: They were not tears of passion, : Little did
we realise that Childers’ party had been at cruel work at our meeting

Panel three:

View of the crowd in front of JB, their eyes are streaming
and some are sneezing

Crowd: at Choo….cough etc.

JB: perhaps we can now have a proper debate about this
INHUMANE act….cough……cough

Somebody out of frame: Pepper?...there is pepper all over
the floor

Panel 4: Aggressive men are now downstairs setting light to
the hay bales, smoke is billowing up through the floor boards

Angry man: Smoke ‘em out

Crowd (through the floor): Smoke! Fire! Get out!

JB: everyone remain calm

Page7

Panel 1:

Head after head of men with countenances full of fury
appearing through the trapdoor. Lead by men dressed as gentlemen, one pointing
at JB

Gentleman: ?!!%$£$£

Panel 2:

Smash of a window by stones thrown from the outside….glass
scatters over JB and Mrs Wilson

Panel 3:

Gentleman and JB face off

Gentleman: We’ve had enough of your talk (something along
the lines of immoral and unladylike talk)

JB: You can tell Mr Childers that this kind of behaviour
will not diminish our resolve

JB Narration: few of these men were Yorkshire people

Panel 4:

Policemen pop heads through trapdoor – they have a cynical
smile

Policeman: evening all

JB: at last…constable please kindly remove these men from
the premises….where are you going?

Panel 5:

Policemen leave

Policeman: we are only here for election matters so we will
be on our way

Panel 6:

The mob move in and women start to flee down the ladder. Mr
Stuart confronts them and get into a tussle